Monday 6 April 1663
Up very betimes and to my office, and there made an end of reading my book that I have of Mr. Barlow’s of the Journal of the Commissioners of the Navy, who begun to act in the year 1628 and continued six years, wherein is fine observations and precedents out of which I do purpose to make a good collection.
By and by, much against my will, being twice sent for, to Sir G. Carteret’s to pass his accounts there, upon which Sir J. Minnes, Sir W. Batten, Sir W. Pen, and myself all the morning, and again after dinner to it, being vexed at my heart to see a thing of that importance done so slightly and with that neglect for which God pardon us, and I would I could mend it. Thence leaving them I made an excuse and away home, and took my wife by coach and left her at Madam Clerk’s, to make a visit there, and I to the Committee of Tangier, where I found, to my great joy, my Lord Sandwich, the first time I have seen him abroad these some months, and by and by he rose and took leave, being, it seems, this night to go to Kensington or Chelsey, where he hath taken a lodging for a while to take the ayre.
We staid, and after business done I got Mr. Coventry into the Matted Gallery and told him my whole mind concerning matters of our office, all my discontent to see things of so great trust carried so neglectfully, and what pitiful service the Controller and Surveyor make of their duties, and I disburdened my mind wholly to him and he to me his own, many things, telling me that he is much discouraged by seeing things not to grow better and better as he did well hope they would have done. Upon the whole, after a full hour’s private discourse, telling one another our minds, we with great content parted, and with very great satisfaction for my [having] thus cleared my conscience, went to Dr. Clerk’s and thence fetched my wife, and by coach home. To my office a little to set things in order, and so home to supper and to bed.
19 Annotations
First Reading
Robert Gertz • Link
Good ole Barlow. That 100L per year is finally bringing in a return.
***
"By and by, much against my will, being twice sent for, to Sir G. Carteret’s to pass his accounts there..."
So the whole team is onhand to rush the budget through in one day, preferably with as few questions as possible I suspect. Sounds much like our system at the CDC. Without warning, everything must be rushed through in two or three days...No real budgetting, estimates of needs guessed at. And naturally it pays not to economize lest the powers that be decide you can get by with less...
Sam, I sympathize.
TerryF • Link
"So the whole team is on hand to rush the budget through"
Mr. Coventry, the Treasurer of the Navy, is himself today implicated in higher-order budget, ah, management in the H of C; but first that body deals again with the issue Stolzi facetiously said took precedence:
Preventing Popery, &c.
Ordered, That the Committee to which the Bill to prevent the Growth of Popery was committed, have Leave to sit this Afternoon, notwithstanding the Order for the Sitting of the Committee of Trade.
Crown Revenue.
The House then resolved itself into a Committee of the whole House, to proceed in the Matter of his Majesty's Revenue.....
Resolved, &c. That the Sub Committee appointed to inspect That Branch of his Majesty's Revenue arising by Hearths and Chimnies, be a Committee of the House: Who have Power to peruse the Act for raising of a Revenue by Hearths and Chimnies; and to consider of the Defects therein; and how they may be supplied; and to report the same to the House: And all Members that come to the said Committee, are to have Voices thereat.
The Names of the Committee are as followeth; viz. Sir Cha. Berkley, [55 other members named, incl. Sir Geo. Downing, Sir Phil. Musgrave, Mr. Pepis, and at the end], Mr. Coventry.
From: 'House of Commons Journal Volume 8: 6 April 1663', Journal of the House of Commons: volume 8: 1660-1667 (1802), pp. 466-67. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…. Date accessed: 06 April 2006.
in Aqua Scripto • Link
?This Mr Pepis could be attornay at law, one Thomas Pepis, an Attorney at Law,
not our Man but a M.P. from Berkshire.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
Todd Bernhardt • Link
"to Sir G. Carteret’s to pass his accounts there"
Are we sure this is the Navy budget we're talking about? My first inclination upon reading this was that Carteret was getting the other officers to balance his books for him, which would also explain the need to summon Sam twice.
dirk • Link
"and after business done I got Mr. Coventry into the Matted Gallery and told him my whole mind..."
Coventry is not only the leading man of the Navy Board, and Sam's superior, but we also know that Carteret and Coventry are not on friendly terms (see also "in-depth articles" - Pepys sociogram). So Sam clearly sought out the right person to "clear his conscience"...
TerryF • Link
in Aqua Scripto, Maestro, I do believe you have ID'd Mr Pepis!
* * *
Today's budget botch brought to mind the Committee of Tangier fiasco of 16 February that left our man with a not too-dissimilar bad taste in his mouth and only Mr. Moore to tell his mind, and of course his Diary (this ever-ready confidante and therapist)
http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
in Aqua Scripto • Link
This other Mr Pepis be mentioned over 100 times in the next few years on Committees of the House, there is one instance the name be mentioned twice on the same committee in '67.
. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…. Date accessed: 07 April 2006.
The Pepys is used latter in the records, Even when he was indited for the false arrest, his name was spelt Pepis and Pepys:
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/…
There be others including a Lord Pepis, so until we get a DNA test , there be room for error and doubt which Mr Peppeas it be.
The Attorney be wrongly accused of being the MP.
For those that want to see into the future problems of Samuell and his friends in the houses cand go to the avove site and read all about them.1670-1690 approx.
Paul Chapin • Link
A couple of minor corrections re Mr. Coventry
Sir George Carteret was the Treasurer of the Navy, not Coventry (cf. Terry's annotation). Coventry was a Commissioner, and thus officially Sam's colleague, not his superior (cf. Dirk's annotation). Coventry's power on the Navy Board came from his close association with the Duke of York more than his official status. None of this has any real bearing on the points Terry and Dirk were making, though. Just trying to keep the record straight.
TerryF • Link
Thanks, Paul C., for setting the record straight so graciously.
* * *
On another point, the man who commenced the pedigree of the Diarist is "'William Pepis [alt. Pepys] the elder, of Cottenham, co. Cambridge,' whose will is dated 20th March, 1519." http://www.pepysdiary.com/intro/p… so the Clerk of the Acts and the Attorney may be remotely related.
Australian Susan • Link
Monday morning, but no visit to the Duke of York to wait on him and no mention of this being cancelled.
Stolzi • Link
"to take the ayre"
Suggests how nasty it could be in London, when a nobleman goes off to a far suburb to breathe something sweeter. Hope it is spring for him. Here, it is lovely spring weather now... on and off.
JohnT • Link
Kensington and Chelsea were not part of London in the 17th century but rather separate villages on the Thames albeit within easy reach of the city. Both were very fashionable. By 1704 John Bowack was to write that Kensington was " inhabited by Gentry and Persons of Note : There is also an abundance of Shopkeepers and all sorts of Artificers in it, which makes it appear rather like part of London, than a country village. "
http://www.holmans-estates.co.uk/…
in Aqua Scripto • Link
Even the Kensington high street be not yet famous,
even 123 years latter,in 1786 it be still rural with Gravel pitts for a neighbour to the Gardens:and Shepards Bush still has a bush ah two.
see:
http://www.motco.com/Map/81001/Se…
celtcahill • Link
" Take the Air "
I believe there is more to this move than we yet know....
I use the same excuse when going out to smoke....
dirk • Link
Paul, I stand corrected... Thanks.
dirk • Link
remote Pepys family connections
"en agua escrito", there were some sufficiently well-to-do family connections around -- albeit remote (cf. infra). So maybe even a "Lord" Pepys/Pepis who might be related to our Sam. If that were so, wouldn't Sam have mentioned that somewhere though? Would he have known?
From Wheatley’s introduction to the diary:
“The first of the name [Pepys] in 1273 were evidently but small copyholders. Within 150 years (1420) three or four of the name had entered the priesthood, and others had become connected with the monastery of Croyland as bailiffs, &c. In 250 years (1520) there were certainly two families: one at Cottenham, co. Cambridge, and another at Braintree, co. Essex, in comfortable circumstances as yeomen farmers. Within fifty years more (1563), one of the family, Thomas, of Southcreeke, co. Norfolk, had entered the ranks of the gentry sufficiently to have his coat-of-arms recognized by the Herald Cooke, who conducted the Visitation of Norfolk in that year. From that date the majority of the family have been in good circumstances, with perhaps more than the average of its members taking up public positions.”
A. De Araujo • Link
"take the air"
With emphysema one actually has difficulty exhaling.
in Aqua Scripto • Link
magnus falsus; Erratum largum: MP Pepys [Pepis] on the house committee be Samuell's Cosen Roger. MP for Cambridge.
http://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclo…
[why did not one of the experts who be lurking not idicate that my derriere needed 3 of the swithest.
Nein"?This Mr Pepis could be attornay at law, one Thomas Pepis, an Attorney at Law,
not our Man but a M.P. from Berkshire.
[wrong county as well]
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"the Journal of the Commissioners of the Navy, who begun to act in the year 1618 and continued six years" -- so L&M
The commission of 1618 had been established to rectify the maladministration of the navy under the regime of Sir Robert Mansell (Treasurer, 1604-18). The journal here referred to was probably the report of their proceedings, of which a copy remains in Pepys's collection in the Rawlinson MSS in the Bodleian Library. Hewer was responsible for making the copy mentioned in this entry. There is a later copy (made from Sir W. Coventry's transcript) in the Pepysian Library. (L&M footnote)